Undergraduate Degrees

Faculty Highlights

Prof. Chris Jones was recently featured on NPR's All Things Considered to speak about a man named Samuel Van Syckel and his goal to build the nation's first commercial oil pipeline. Before Van Syckel's pipeline, transporting oil cost as much as, or more than, the oil itself. Jones says, "Once people were there, they discovered it was one thing to bring oil out of the ground — but it was an entirely different thing to try and get it to market."

Prof. Jason Bruner’s essay, “Theology in Oral History” has been published in Marginalia Review of Books’ blog. In it, he talks about conversions to Christianity in East Africa beginning in the 1930’s and explains why oral history was preferred to written history for religious reasons. Bruner says, “In writing a history of this revival, I had to confront the reality that I had a dramatically different conceptualization of history — and of doing history — than my interlocutors.”

Prof. Donald T. Critchlow’s book, “American Political History: A Very Short Introduction” is set to be published in February 2015. His new book explores the nature of the two-party system, key turning points in American political history, representative presidential and congressional elections, struggles to expand the electorate, and critical social protest and third-party movements. Donald Critchlow is a professor of history and serves as Director of the ASU Center for Political Thought and Leadership.

Regents' Professor Rebecca Tsosie has been named associate vice provost for academic excellence and inclusion, and as such will engage indigenous communities. Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, is a Regents’ Professor teaching in the fields of Indian law, constitutional law, property and critical race theory. She is a founding co-chair of the Provost’s Native American Advisory Council. She is the co-author of a leading casebook on federal Indian law, as well as the author of numerous publications on tribal sovereignty, environmental policy and cultural rights.

In a presentation titled “Capitalism in Reverse: The United Farm Worker's Grape Boycott and the Power of Inter-racial Organizing,” Matt Garcia, director of the Center for Comparative Border Studies at Arizona State University, will discuss the accomplishments of the United Farm Workers movement.

Jonathan Barth has been hired to teach as an assistant professor of history of capitalism and political economy. Barth will join the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies faculty in the fall of 2015.